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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

CHAPTER XVIII

THE 1839 DIRECTORY
 

_A LIST of the residents of Decatur in 1839 was given The Decatur Review by David Hummell, of Lincoln, Ill., who lived in Decatur that year and for some years afterwards.  It gives one a clear glimpse of the citizenship of the town at that time.  It is the nearest we have to a directory of Decatur in that early day.

This list was not made up by Mr. Hummell until seventy years after the time it represented, and for that reason it is remarkable for its completeness.  It might be expected that after such a lapse of time, Mr. Hummell might have missed a few names, yet he probably did not miss many, for other old settlers have verified the list.

Mr. Hummell came to Decatur in 1839 and became well acquainted with the few hundred people who were citizens of the town then.  Those citizens included men who were prominent in the upbuilding of the city.  Some of their descendants are just as prominent in the progress of Decatur today.

THE LIST

The list as compiled by Mr. Hummell follows:
(The first named were heads of families; the number preceding the name shows the number of grown persons in the family.)

The single men and the women they afterward married:

The population of Macon county about that time was estimated at 3,200.  The census of 1840 enumerated 3,233 persons.

Edmiston McClellan, mentioned in the above list, became one of Decatur's best known men.  He lived in the city from 1835 until 1900.  For twenty-eight years in succession he served the county as circuit clerk.  Before that he had been a clerk in various stores, had done surveying, had been a deputy sheriff, city marshal and deputy circuit clerk.

One of the men who came to Decatur in 1839 and who was identified with the business life of the city for years was Berry H. Cassell, who came from Pennsylvania.  He started a tin shop, backed by David L. Allen, and tin cups made by him and peddled over the country were the basis of his fortune.  He also ran a hardware and grocery store and other enterprises.  He bought up a great deal of land, and at one time owned the land from Franklin to Jasper street, between Wood street and the Wabash tracks, and 400 or 500 acres in the vicinity of the Wabash properties.  He gave the site of the Illinois Central depot to that railroad.

Berry and Henry Cassell were in the hotel business for several years, operating the Cassell house, which they had bought from Landy Harrell.  It stood on the present site of the St. Nicholas hotel.

BUSINESS VENTURES

Decatur added several business enterprises in 1839.  The old ox mill, one of the most interesting of the early day institutions of the county, was erected that year by J. J. Peddecord, Ninian Peddecord and E. O. Smith.¹  Its principal product was corn meal.  The mill was located on East Prairie street, near the Town branch (where Broadway is now).

West of the ox mill was built the Macon house, Decatur's first hotel, which later became know as the Revere house and for many years was Decatur's leading hostelry.  The hotel was built by David L. Allen and Thomas H. Read, and James Nesbit was proprietor for a time.  It was located at the southeast corner of Prairie and Franklin.

In 1839 the first manufacturing concern using steam power was established by Wilson Allen.  It was a combination was mill, grist mill and carding factory.  Three years later it burned down, one Sunday afternoon.

William Kibby established a distillery in 1839 near what was afterwards known as Imboden springs, in the south part of town (a block west of Greenwood avenue near the cemetery).  It was operated by Kibby only a year.

James D. Tait came to Decatur in 1839 and opened the first saddle and harness shop.  He walked all the way here from Naples, Ill., on the Illinois river, carrying his tools on his back.  Frequently during the trip he was obliged to wade water up to his chin.  Every slough and hollow was filled with water.  He bought his goods in Springfield and had them hauled here by team.

Leonard Ashton, who carried mail between Decatur and Paris, had the first livery stable.  It stood on ground now covered by the rear of the Y. M. C. A. annex.

By 1840 Decatur was supplied with grocery, dry goods, drug, cigar and general stores; it had wagon shop and livery stable; it had saloons, two churches, distillery, harness shop and hotels.  It was beginning to take on the appearance of a town.

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¹  Motive power for the mill was obtained by placing three or four cows on an inclined wheel, their heads secured to a cross beam.  The cattle walked forward.  All they had to do was to keep walking, but they never advanced any.  Smith's history tells how the machinery occasionally got detached and a "runaway" resulted.  The cattle became frightened and started to run.  The faster they went, the faster the wheels turned, and the harder it was to get the machinery stopped.  Things happened then.  Sometimes the cattle fell, and were dragged by the neck.  Excited citizens rushed to aid by throwing logs or rails under the wheel.  With cattle bellowing, machinery shrieking, rails crashing, "Uncle Henry" giving shrill orders, noise and confusion everywhere.  It made an occasion to be rememebered.

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